


Treasure

by SonriaCat



Series: Tales from Winter Camp [5]
Category: Earth 2 (TV 1994)
Genre: 100 situations, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2019-02-16 20:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13061850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonriaCat/pseuds/SonriaCat
Summary: Morgan finds gold.





	Treasure

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: River

Bess sat up, startled. It was the middle of the night and camp was quiet but for its usual soft sounds. She’d never had a Terrian dream and the Grendlers always made noise. So what had woken her up?

Rolling over, she found the answer: she was alone. “Morgan?”

He was seated on a crate on the other side of their tent. The lumalight on his far side was turned down to minimum, rendering him as nothing more than a silhouette as he sat hunched over his gear, adjusting the settings and muttering softly to himself.

“Gold,” she heard him whisper. “It’s pure gold.”

Sighing, Bess wrapped the covers tighter around herself and flopped back down on her side of the cot. Morgan and VR programs were never a good combination. Sometimes she had to remind herself that he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

#

He was cheerful at breakfast the next morning, showing no sign of having spent half the night creating a VR program. Bess smiled, ignoring the warning bells in her mind: Morgan wasn’t a morning person. He was never good company at breakfast.

But he was nearly jiggling when she brought their bowls over. She looked him up and down. “You’re in an awful good mood this morning.”

“I sure am,” he answered. “Guess what: I’ve found it, Bess! I’ve found the thing that will make us famous on this planet and maybe even back to the Stations. People will remember our name for generations!”

“Morgan!” she whispered urgently. “Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“No, no, this is different,” he assured her. “Nobody’s going to get hurt this time.”

“That’s what you thought last time.” Nobody had been permanently hurt during the incident with the Morganite, but they’d never found Mary. She’d only had a coat as protection against the bitter weather. Bess still prayed that she’d found a safe place.

“I learned, all right? And I can’t wait to show you. What detail are you on today?”

“Laundry.” They had already gathered fresh snow before breakfast, piling it into a container and bringing it inside to melt.

“Oh, that’s _perfect!_ Once you get a chance why don’t you slip away for a minute. I’ve got to show you.”

“The laundry’s going to take a while.”

“I know, but this won’t! I promise!”

She chuckled. He was sometimes almost childlike in his enthusiasm. “All right. I’ll see what I can do.”

#

Later that morning, after they’d finished stringing clothesline around the edges of the bio-dome, Bess pleaded the need for a short nap and slipped out. Morgan was supposed to be out gathering wood, but she wasn’t surprised when she opened their tent flap and found him in there.

“Oh, you made it! That’s great!” Before she could even get her coat off, he grabbed her arm and led her back outside, shrugging into his own coat. “Come on, I’ve got to show you! It’s gold, Bess, pure gold!”

She stopped short, causing him to stumble. “Morgan, we are _not_ mining this area. You know that.”

“Who said anything about mining? Come _on!_ ”

He pulled her well outside the camp’s perimeter, though she made a point of keeping a mental map so they wouldn’t get lost. This was a direction they hadn’t explored much yet, since the terrain was rocky and, due to the snow, slippery. “Honey, be careful!”

“Hurry up! It’s not far!” He was jiggling with impatience again.

“I’m coming.” She finished climbing up to his level and followed him around an outcropping. Then she gasped. “Morgan!”

“I know. Isn’t it great? It’s like I said — pure gold!”

Bess knelt down by the stream, marveling that the water was still liquid despite the freezing temperatures. Its course led away from camp, down the hill in another direction. “What is it? Is there gold somewhere along the way or something?”

He dropped down beside her. “I followed this, all the way to its end. It led to a river, Bess! A real river, and the equipment says the water’s pure. None of that scary charged stuff. We don’t have to depend on melting snow anymore!”

This time, Bess’ smile was genuine. She should have known that Morgan had learned his lesson. He wouldn’t have done anything foolish. Throwing her arms around him, she cried, “Oh, this is wonderful! What are you going to call it?”

“Well, I found it, so I get to name it: the Morgan River! Of course, I guess this would be the Upper Morgan River, since it probably runs out of the mountains to wherever, but people are going to remember this, and when they do, it’ll be with our names!” He fell away from her embrace, laughing as he swung his arms wide. “We’re famous, Bess!”

Mirroring his laugh, she sank down on a rock and looked at the creek. _Gold_ , he’d called it. He was right. Fresh water was always a treasure, and rivers usually ran to the coast. This might even be their trail to New Pacifica.

And Morgan had found it. He really was the best thing that had ever happened to her.


End file.
